Speaker
Description
This presentation examines the history of efforts to enhance passenger experience and comfort on Japan National Railway (JNR) and JR East trains in Tokyo during the second half of the 20th century. Japanese public transport professionals have long distinguished between the “hardware” (i.e., physical transport infrastructure) and “software” (i.e., passenger-staff interactions) aspects of service when discussing efforts to improve passenger experience. Highlighting this conceptual distinction, this presentation focuses on efforts to improve the “software” of service in the decades following the Second World War. While popular accounts often attribute the improvement of passenger experience aboard JNR trains to the organization’s 1987 privatization, this presentation challenges that narrative by demonstrating that efforts to achieve passenger-oriented transport design began much earlier. It examines the development of passenger comfort-focused organizational strategies and design interventions by drawing on Japanese primary (e.g., industry publications, newspaper reports) and secondary sources. By providing insights into the evolution of efforts to shape mobility experiences aboard public transport, this presentation contributes to the fields of mobility studies and the history of transport, infrastructure, and East Asian cities.
Biography
Christoph Schimkowsky is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Institute of Social Science, University of Tokyo. His current research explores the development of codes of transit etiquette on Tokyo’s urban railway network since 1945. Christoph completed his PhD in Sociological Studies at the University of Sheffield (UK) and also holds degrees from SOAS, University of London; Waseda University, Tokyo; and the University of Göttingen. His research has appeared in Mobilities, Transfers, and Visual Communication, among others.
